If that doesn't make you sick to your stomach with rage, then we have an even bigger problem.

Once news of the Townville Elementary School shooting became available, there was an immediate call for "thoughts and prayers" for the victims and their families. Sending thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families for the days and weeks to come is natural reaction, but sending thoughts and prayers isn't enough. In the worst-case scenario, a school shooting means that there are lives lost, and prayers, unfortunately, aren't enough to bring them back. Prayers don't create change. Advocating, demanding better, calling your local representative and asking them, point-blank, what they're going to do to ensure that this never happens to your town, to your school, to your child — that is how you create change.

The stats confirm that there is a school shooting nearly every week. If that's a fact that doesn't sit well with you, then you should absolutely call your elected official and advocate for gun violence reform. In fact, there are plenty of ways to do that. Elected officials are elected by you. That means they work for you. And the best way to ensure that your voice is heard and that your elected official is taking seriously the things you care about, you can find your representative and call them. Not sure who your representative is? You can look representatives up in a directory and contact them from there. It lists what their telephone numbers are and where their offices are located.

Making change starts at the most basic level. Knowing that every week, more and more lives are lost because of backwards gun control in America only makes me want to campaign more and more for change.